Stage 14: Tour Plateau

The best efforts of Team Leopard-Trek could not shake their leading rivals at the Tour de France. The last day in the Pyrenees was expected to be a deciding stage, but all the pre-race favorites remain within striking distance of the yellow jersey after Stage 14. We will be kept in suspense until the Alps—or some bad luck—reveals the winner and losers next week.

The hilly course near the southern border of France featured six categorized climbs, and the Luxembourg team led by native sons Andy and Frank Schleck drove hard all day. Leopard-Trek teammates Fabian Cancellara and Stuart O’Grady dug deep to set a fast tempo, and 39-year-old Jens Voigt rode in the breakaway before crashing twice on the descent from Port de Lers. Voigt led a diminishing peloton at the base of the final climb, from the ski town of Les Cabannes up the Plateau de Beille.

Les Cabannes in 2004

With the hard pace, Leopard-Trek isolated the race leaders from their teammates and set the Schleck brothers up for a two-pronged attack. The contenders included Cadel Evans of BMC, Alberto Contador of Saxo Bank, Ivan Basso of Liquigas, and Damiano Cunego of Lampre. Also hanging in were Sammy Sanchez of Euskaltel-Euskadi, Jelle Vanendert of Omega Pharma-Lotto, and Thomas Voeckler of Europcar, among a few others. Voeckler is not considered strong enough to win the Tour, but he and his team again impressed by keeping pace with the best cyclists in the world on a brutal mountain stage and retaining the yellow jersey for one more day. The French are thrilled with the special performance by the Frenchman on the French team.

On the road to the summit, Andy Schleck attacked the elite group again and again, but Evans led the responses and matched him. Frank Schleck followed with another attack, as did Basso, but the riders kept pace. At 4K to the finish, Sanchez launched off the front group, gaining time but not enough to catch Vanendert for the win. Vanendert captured his first professional cycling victory on a mountain made famous by stage winners Marco Pantani (1998), Lance Armstrong (2002 and 2004), and Contador (2007). Andy Schleck made a push to the line to gain just a few symbolic seconds on his rivals, cold comfort on a day when so much team effort led to such a meager gain.

Plateau de Beille in 2004

Averaging 7.9% incline for 15.8 kilometers, the Plateau de Beille was expected to sort out the field of general classification contenders. The Schlecks clearly wanted to put their stamp on the race but failed to do so. They didn’t lose time, but their team expended significant energy for practically no gain. Contador, said to be suffering from “a sore bottom,” still needs to take back almost two minutes on the others, but he got away with laying low today. Perhaps the next few days will allow him to recover a bit before the required attack in the Alps.

The Australian Evans demonstrated his confidence again as he matched every attack and did not play the passive role he has assumed in previous Tours de France. While not favored to win, Basso and Cunego continued to keep pace with the other kings of the sport in the Pyrenees. Questions are arising whether Voeckler could win the race. Lance Armstrong tweeted, “He has 2:06 on Evans… He’s French. It’s the Tour de FRANCE.” Because the favorites could not shake him today, Armstrong believes it is possible for Voeckler to pull it off.

The previous winners at Plateau de Beille always went on to win the Tour. Not this year. So we will have to wait until the Alps for the victor to finally emerge. Stages 18 and 19 will be epic battles, though a crash or illness in the meantime could spell the end of a contender’s dreams.

Tomorrow, the race belongs to the sprinters, while the overall contenders enjoy a reprieve in the peloton. The 193 kilometer stage to Montepellier is the perfectly flat route that makes the fast men salivate. Mark Cavendish and his team HTC-Highroad will be tearing themselves inside out for the win, looking for the fourth victory this year. Rivals Tyler Farrar of Garmin-Cervelo, Jose Joaquin Rojas of Movistar, and Andre Greipel of Omega Pharma-Lotto will be hot on his trail, as will Philippe Gilbert, also of Omega and striving to strip Cavendish of the green jersey. Catch the intermediate sprint at Montagnac, about 47K to the finish. As with all sprint finishes, the last 5 to 10K are exciting, and the riders cover about 1K per minute. Watch the last half hour of coverage to see the lead-out train and sprint finish, plus the slow motion replay of the high-speed climax.

Overall standings after Stage 14:

1. Thomas Voeckler (Europcar)

2. Frank Schleck (Leopard-Trek) + 01’ 49”

3. Cadel Evans (BMC) + 02’ 06”

4. Andy Schleck (Leopard-Trek) + 02’ 15”

5. Ivan Basso (Liquigas) + 03’ 16”

6. Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) + 03’ 44”

7. Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Sungard) + 04’ 00”

8. Damiano Cunego (Lampre-ISD) + 04’ 01”

9. Tom Danielson (Garmin-Cervelo) + 05’ 46”

10. Kevin De Weert (Quick-Step) + 06’ 18”

Complete standings: http://www.letour.fr/2011/TDF/LIVE/us/1400/classement/index.html

Stage 15 map & profile: http://www.letour.fr/2011/TDF/LIVE/us/1500/etape_par_etape.html